Help me choose some skirting boards!

[GrendelsMum]

One of those terribly dull threads, I'm afraid!

I need to choose some new skirting boards for our hallway, and I'm being indecisive.

What sort of skirting board profile would you go for from the pictures here?

www.skirtingboards.com/

It's for a room which is a 1950s revamp of a 17th century hallway, if you can imagine such a thing - think oak beams and parquet floors. The skirting boards need to be very high (25cm or so) as part of the damp control measures (don't ask...)

Interesting combination of eras! Are there any existing skirtings you would like to match? How will you be decorating the hall? I presume that skirtings wouldn't have been installed originally.... I would probably go for something quite plain like bullnose, anything too twiddly will just look like you are introducing vicoriana into the mix.....

Do you actually need to have skirtings?

The plainer it is the less dust it will collect.

Although more expensive, going for the longest pieces mean less visible joins.

I have just been looking at skirting (how dull) agree with DinahRod, I always look at it from a dusting point of view, so bullnose or this

I use a long handled ostrich feather duster for dusting so I need skirting I can just sweep it along.

I don't think I have ever walked into someone's house and thought, wow, nice skirting

Dusting is a very good thought. At the moment, the house is quite astonishingly grimy, so it hasn't really registered.

I might try dusting some of our current skirting boards and see which dust best. (That will be another riviting evening in the Grendel Lair)

Also appreciate the tip on long pieces of skirting board - I shall certainly go for that.

Interestingly enough, I now have one room without skirting boards, and I can see exactly why they were invented - if you scrub grimy ancient hand-made brick floors, the dirty water flies up against the beautifully distempered walls and you can't wipe it off. Obviously I should have done all the floor scrubbing before distempering, but we live and learn...

Not sure what to suggeast as I cant envisage a 1950s revamp of a 17th century hallway!
Tell us more...

But I do agree that easy dusting is important, we have a fussy skirting in our shower room and it is a real dust trap.

Surely everyone knows what a 1950s revamp of a 17th century hallway looks like? Think woodchip, think dark red paint, think rotten skirting boards, think a smell of damp wafting up from the rotten skirtng boards...

I think the damp control measures have got rid of the 1950s bit, actually - the woodchip is off, and I'm now onto the Victorian layer of wallpaper archaeology, which means scrubbing away at traditional glue made out of boiled fish.

I'll report on how the dusting goes!

DO you have original skirting left in the house?
If so can you be guided by this? I would tend to stick to close to the original as possible as I think skirting is usually fitted in proportion with the room size/ceiling height and other feautures like architrave etc.

What flooring will you be having in the hall?

Who knew there was so much choice !

The most original skirting is, I think, quarry tiles laid on edge. Next most original is Victorian, very high and quite twiddly, and isn't looking good to pass the dust test, although I shall try it out! There aren't any architraves, just some large oak beams. I'm keeping the parquet floor which is quite nice.

Simple is probably more in keeping for the skirting boards. I might paint them exactly the same colour as the walls, so as not to draw attention to them.